A Dartmouth couple accused of killing Christina Cline last year made a brief court appearance together Wednesday.

Dustin Brian Hales, 37, and his wife, Victoria Ann Weir-Hales, 26, are charged with first-degree murder in the death of his former fiancee.

They sat on opposite ends of a prisoners bench, separated by two sheriff’s deputies, during the proceedings in Dartmouth provincial court, which lasted less than three minutes.

The pair, who were arrested last month, were originally charged separately, which would have meant two trials.

But police swore a new information Wednesday charging them jointly.

Crown attorney Denise Smith told the court she would not be proceeding with an application to have the couple banned from communicating with each other. An interim ban had been granted by another judge Nov. 26.

Smith said she has provided some initial disclosure of evidence to the defence lawyers but that a substantial amount of material is still to come.

Judge Alanna Murphy adjourned the case until Feb. 21 for the setting of dates for a preliminary inquiry.

Hales had Pavel Boubnov for his lawyer at his first court appearance but has since hired Luke Craggs. Weir-Hales continues to be represented by Geoff Newton.

Cline’s body was found on the morning of Nov. 19, 2011, along a trail in Shubie Park in Dartmouth.

The 27-year-old Dartmouth woman disappeared after leaving her three children with a babysitter the previous afternoon. It was expected she would be gone for only a few hours, but she never came home.

Police have never revealed how Cline was killed, but sources told The Chronicle Herald that she was stabbed multiple times.

Cline was the mother of Hales’s children. At the time of her death, they had allegedly been fighting over custody of the kids.

Hales and Weir-Hales were picked up by police for questioning the following month but were released without being charged. They married days later.

The judge remanded the couple back to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth. If they want bail, they will have to make an application in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

Outside court, Smith said the Crown asks for a no-contact order for co-accused “in situations where we have concerns that the integrity of the prosecution may be affected by the defendants having an opportunity to discuss the legal proceedings or the offence itself.

“In this case, having reviewed the evidence in the matter, the integrity of the case is not thought to be affected in any way by the co-accused having contact. So there’s no need to request the order be continued.

“That being said, what contact they are able to have, considering the fact that they’re both institutionalized at this point, will depend upon what is permitted by corrections officials.”